The charity was found to have contributed to the emotional distress of an employee.

A Scottish social care charity will have to pay out thousands in compensation after being taken to an employment tribunal by a former employee. 

Turning Point Scotland was accused of unfair dismissal and breach of contract following a row over breast reduction surgery. 

A judgement, laid out on December 19 2022, found that Miss SM - who was a lead practitioner in criminal justice services at the charity - should be paid £4,000 in compensation. 

Miss M claimed to have suffered emotional distress over her treatment by the charity. 

The charity had determinedthat her breast reduction surgery, as recommended by an NHS surgeon, was cosmetic and told her she could not take medical leave.

Claims of direct discrimination and harassment were dismissed in the decision.

Turning Point Scotland were found to have breached Miss M’s contract, forcing her to resign, with the judgement finding that “the respondent acted in fundamental breach of the term of trust and confidence and the claimant was entitled to resign.”

Miss M was questioned about the legitimacy of her surgery and instructed to take annual leave for the procedure by the charity. 

This was despite the claimant’s insistence it was on medical grounds, with bosses telling her that she would have to meet with occupational health - before this was later deemed "unnecessary" and cancelled.

Weeks after returning to work, Miss M was informed that funding for her position had 'ceased' and that she was at risk of redundancy.

Turning Point Scotland’s redundancy policy means that Miss M should be offered an alternative position elsewhere in the charity. However, the role she was offered was on a different project where funding was not fully in place and not yet operational.

A four-week long trial period was undertaken, but the worker decided that she didn't have enough information on the role to base her decision as to whether the new role was an alternative suitable position within Turning Point Scotland. 

After being offered two further roles, which were deemed “'both unsuitable and unsustainable”, Miss M took redundancy. 

However, Turning Point Scotland responded by claiming that, as another role had been found, she was not eligible for redundancy, and was instead issued with a P45.

After informing management that she had not resigned and had opted for redundancy, she was forced to hand in her resignation to allow her to move to another job.

The total award of £4,000 is made up of both an unfair dismissal award and a compensatory award. 

Turning Point Scotland’s head of HR, Kevin Staunton said: “We are pleased the tribunal found in favour of Turning Point Scotland in regards to the discrimination aspect of this claim which relates back to  2018.

“We are disappointed that the court found against us with regard to constructive dismissal. We do, of course, respect the outcome which we will assess carefully to improve our internal processes.  

“We take great pride in our values, culture and how we look after our colleagues with compassion and integrity."